Magpie B.

Pretty Pictures

I found this site via Krisalis. It's the Typo Generator. You put in the text you want and the site generates a funky picture using your words! I liked one of my pictures so much that I made one into my banner! I also liked this one.

Brrrring!

I am so sad I didn't see these bicycle bells at Wishingfish before I bought the plain black bell for my bike. Although I do love my plain bell. I ring it at everything - a person I'm passing - BRRRRING! - a child that might cross my path - BRRRRING! - saying hello to a friend - BRRRRING! You get the idea. I think my friends might steal it if I don't cool it!

Rubber Ducky! You're the one!

I brought my camera with my to the Botanical Garden today. I just had to get the little yellow duckling on film before it grew out of its yellow fuzz. Don't you want to bring it home?

MADNESS!! and ponchos

Constant whirring of helicopter blades. National Guards on each corner. Lots of people with maps banging into each other. Protestors everywhere. Limos and police escorts. This is Boston. And, you know what?...It's kind of fun. Most Bostonians are on vacation outside the city. I am on my bike. And it's not so bad. I've been having a blast people watching as I knit my poncho in the Botanical Garden. Who would have known I would be enjoying this?

I love how my poncho is turning out and I am currently planning another. I am trying to decide between a few colors. I've narrowed my choices to this:

Sailing on the River

I am officially signed up to take a sailing course through the Boston Center for Adult Education. I am so excited! There are four classes and at the end you are able to sail 'solo' on the Charles River! You have to be able to swim 75 yards which I can do without a problem...I just hope I don't need to don a bathing suit in front of the class and prove it! Wahoo! I LOVE Boston.

Shakespeare on the Common

People - I must announce yet another free outdoor activity - Shakespeare on the Common. This year Much Ado about Nothing will be the play of choice. I will be attending sometime next week before the Democratic National Convention takes over the city.
In Boston, saying you are pleased about the DNC being here is like pooping in the middle of a room and smiling about it. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican. Bostonians are going to be incredibly inconvenienced! The city even created a website to inform the people attending the convention and inform Bostonians about traffic and T changes. I plan to ride my bike to work during that week. Going underground seems like a bad idea and riding a bus ... it would be quicker to walk to work! So, it's my bike to the rescue!

Ride on, Josephine...well...Megan!

I got my new bike! I rode it ALL over the city/suburbs. I rode for a total of four hours! I had to ride it home and then I rode it over the river to Cambridge to a garden party for work!! It is the BEST bike ever! I got the Townie 21 from Electra. My feet can touch the ground. My nether regions did not become numb after all that riding! And my back, wrists, and hands never felt anything but the pure exhilieration of the bike ride! I am floating on air with my exercise high. And the icing on the cake, THREE separate riders (the serious kind with the tiny bike shorts) asked my about my bike and said that it looked like a great ride!! Wahoo!!!

Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

Well - there are not going to be any cygnets running around the Boston Public Gardens. However this is not as tragic as it might seem. It's actually kind of ... funny! Both swans are female. They are actually Juliet and Juliet!! You read that correctly. It's really hard to identify the gender of a Mute swan and because eggs were laid, people just assumed they were male and female. But no! Swans can lay eggs whether they were fertilized or not! You can read about it here. But that little yellow duckling is still stealing hearts!

Free Friday Flicks!

I am still on my free-outdoor-activities-in-the-city-of-Boston kick! Why haven't I ever been to this before??? I can't wait to go and watch movies at the Hatch Shell. Next Friday night they are showing Pirates of the Carribean! How great is that?

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet are the swans living at the pond in the Boston Botanical Gardens. They are the first swans at the garden to ever lay eggs. Everyone keeps going to the pond to see if they've hatched yet. But it might never happen because Juliet laid her eggs in late May and they should have hatched late last week. You can read about them here. Everyone in Boston has been waiting for the eggs to hatch. It's so sad to think that it might never happen. On a happy note, a bunch of little ducklings have hatched and one looks like a bath toy. It is bright yellow with and orange beak and bright orange little webbed feet. So cute!